Turing Instability in a Boundary-fed System

The formation of localized structures in the chlorine dioxide-idodine-malonic acid (CDIMA) reaction-diffusion system is investigated numerically using a realistic model of this system. We analyze the one-dimensional patterns formed along the gradients imposed by boundary feeds, and study their linear stability to symmetry-breaking perturbations (Turing instability) in the plane transverse to these gradients. We establish that an often-invoked simple local linear analysis which neglects longitudinal diffusion is inappropriate for predicting the linear stability of these patterns. Using a fully nonuniform analysis, we investigate the structure of the patterns formed along the gradients and their stability to transverse Turing pattern formation as a function of the values of two control parameters: the malonic acid feed concentration and the size of the reactor in the dimension along the gradients. The results from this investigation are compared with existing experiments.Comment: 41 pages, 18 figures, to be published in Physical Review

Association of drusen deposition with choroidal intercapillary pillars in the aging human eye

PURPOSE. To determine the pattern of drusen accumulation with age and to investigate the initial sites of deposition and their relationship to choroidal capillaries in human donor eyes from the eye bank of Moorfields Eye Hospital.METHODS. Wholemounted, hydrated preparations of the choriocapillaris and Bruch's membrane from donor eyes ranging from 42 to 95 years, with or without retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), were examined by conventional and confocal microscopy. Drusen were visualized by their autofluorescence.RESULTS. In all age groups studied autofluorescent drusen were present at the equator but were not found centrally where the vascular architecture is different, being tubular rather than a honeycomb pattern. Autofluorescing drusen were strongly associated with the lateral walls of the choriocapillaris (an area commonly known as the intercapillary pillars of the choriocapillaris (P = 0.028; Wilcoxon signed ranks test). Nonfluorescing drusen were occasionally seen centrally, but were not easily identified, and because of their large size, their localization with respect to capillary walls was not possible.CONCLUSIONS. These results strongly support the notion that autofluorescent drusen are not randomly distributed and have a specific spatial relationship to choroidal vessel walls. That equatorial drusen fluoresce, whereas central drusen do not, suggests that they may have different chemical compositions at the two sites and possibly different significance in age-related macular disease

TRESK background potassium channel is not gated at the helix bundle crossing near the cytoplasmic end of the pore.

Two-pore domain K+ channels (K2P) are responsible for background K+ currents and regulate the resting membrane potential and cellular excitability. Their activity is controlled by a large variety of physicochemical factors and intracellular signaling pathways. The majority of these effects converge on the intracellular C-terminus of the channels, resulting in the modification of the gating at the selectivity filter. Another gating mechanism, the activation gate at the helix bundle crossing is also well documented in other K+ channel families, however, it remains uncertain whether this type of gating is functional in K2P channels. The regulation of TWIK-related spinal cord K+ channel (TRESK) is different from the other K2P channels. Regulatory factors acting via the C-terminus are not known, instead channel activity is modified by the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of the unusually long intracellular loop between the 2nd and 3rd transmembrane segments. These unique structural elements of the regulation lead us to examine channel gating at the bundle crossing region. Ba2+ was applied to the intracellular side of excised membrane patches and the characteristics of the channel block were determined. We compared the kinetics of the development of Ba2+ block when the channels were phosphorylated (inhibited) or dephosphorylated (activated) and also in different mutants mimicking the two functional states. Neither the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation nor the point mutations influenced the development of Ba2+ block, suggesting that the conformational changes of the bundle crossing region do not contribute to the phosphorylation-dependent gating of TRESK

The proton structure function and a soft Regge Dipole Pomeron: a test with recent data

A recently published soft Regge Dipole Pomeron model intended for all $x$ and $Q^2$ is proved to give a good agreement with (non fitted) recent HERA data from ZEUS (SVX95) on the protonstructure function $F_2^p(x,Q^2)$ at low $Q^2$ and low $x$. The model also reproduces (without fit) the recently estimated experimental derivatives ${\partial F_2^p\over\partial\ell n Q^2}$ and ${\partial \ell n F_2^p\over\partial\ell n (1/x)}$ in a wide $x$ and $Q^2$-region.Comment: 5 pages (LaTeX), 4 figures (Encapsulated PS

New possibilities of old soft pomeron in DIS

A traditional Regge model with a $Q^2$-independent Pomeron intercept closed (or equal) to one is constructed in order to describe the available data on the proton structure function. A Dipole Pomeron model which does not explicitly violate unitarity is developed and investigated. An excellent agreement with the 1209 data is found ($\chi^2/{dof}=1.11$) in the whole kinematical domain investigated by experiments. A comparison of the model with already existing ones is made. The $x-$, $Q^2-$slopes and the effective intercept are discussed as $Q^2$ and $x$ functions.Comment: 19 pages LaTeX, 10 eps figures included, one of figure captions is correcte